Are high heels used to make women weaker?

[angell84]

I am in a cafe having a cup of tea with a friend.

A small woman stumbled in, in high heels that she could barely walk in. She was with a large domineering man - he was striding ahead, and she could barely keep up.

I looked at her, and I had a thought that I have had a few times.

Why do women wear high heels? And Why do the fashion industry keep pushing high heels at women?

They are uncomfortableto wear, they physically hurt us in the long run- I looked at a scientific study online before I wrote this. It said that wearing high heels weaken women's muscles.

And they make us incredibly weak and vulnerable - we are barely able to walk - let alone run, wearing them. I.e it suits men with bad intentions - for us to wear them.

Does anyone else think this?

To be honest, I don’t like wearing flat shoes and the only ones I’ve ever really owned, probably since school, are trainers or walking boots. But obviously, there are walkable heels, and then there are high stiletto heels. I probably wear mainly a 2-3 inch heel most days, eg. boots in winter or sandals / wedges in summer. I think what happens is, you get used to the way you look in a slight heel and also the way you stand slightly differently, so you feel flat-footed and kind of frumpy / odd if you have to wear flat shoes. I only wear trainers to run in, but I’ve never worn them apart from that. To be honest, I feel kind of depressed in flat shoes which I know sounds ridiculous, but there it is. To me, a 2 inch heel is a flat shoe, basically.

I do a lot of Pilates and I do think my heel habit has changed the curvature of my lower spine. Well, I know it has. My teacher says this is very common with many women and he says women tend to have a more S-shaped spine because heels tend to make you walk with you bum tilted outwards, so your hips and lower spine adjust and the supporting ligaments fuse to support this habit.

Also, so much of the way we can draw balance and strength comes through the soles of our feet - eg if you are doing Pilates in bare feet and visualise your feet firmly planted and sucking up the floor, this strength is transferred though your whole core and takes the strain off other muscle groups and joints. If you’re in heels, your balance and core strength are bound to be affected, yes.

My DH is honest he does like me in dresses and heels for sure, but to be honest, I think I’d still dress the same way if he didn’t exist. It’s obviously conditioning to some extent, but also it’s vanity and wanting to feel good. Just like make up or all sorts of things women tend to feel the need to wear. But if someone said to me I had to wear tracksuits and trainers for the rest if my life, I’d find that more depressing and repressive than the alternative, so god knows.

They prevent small women from missing out on conversations when everyone is standing and literally talking over them. Based in thus one small thing alone I’m going to extrapolate ridiculously like you have done and say they’re designed to empower women.

To be very blunt they are just shoes and you are exaggerating. Wearing heels alone won’t leave you weak, not taking care of yourself does that. Not to mention many women are just five wearing heels. Many women can wear them comfortably and run etc. I wear heels daily because I find them more comfortable than flat shoes. It’s just a preference. Women are allowed preferences.

I seem to recall reading they started life as a mens fashion item and then women started wearing them too.

I think the pp is definitely right about heels going out of fashion with teen girls. But there’s always some sexualised aspect to girls / women’s clothing. I mean, I have teen daughters and spend half my life in shops like Urban Outfitters, Brandy Melville or Subdued. It’s all big Fila trainers, but then they wear it with dresses so short they hardly cover the crotch. It seems this is the standard length though. Yes, “in my day” we wore heels, but the skirts did cover your bum at least. And it’s hard to buy a normal t-shirt in these shops because they’re all cropped. It’s either massive, oversize hoodies (which they wear with nothing else to make tik-toks ) or tiny dresses and cropped tops made in one size only (and that size seems to be size zero or something that would fit the average 11 year old). But no heels anymore!

They seem very unfashionable these days. I can’t remember the last time I saw a woman in heels.

If I wear heels it puts me at 6ft plus.

They're bloody uncomfortable but I will wear them if I feel I need to assert myself in a situation I'm nervous about. Otherwise, I'm happy enough with my height in flat shoes and boots.

NameChangeNugget
"But today, they are simply decorative and associated with sex work"
"Yes, by people of below average intelligence "

Do you mean thick people rather than people with Learning Difficulties? Perhaps think about what you are saying.

@Finallyatooth
Think we might have read the same thing.
Think it also said the same about wigs.

Know women who like heels and are very adept at wearing them. They feel it gives them a certain feeling of power. But if you don't feel.that way then just don't wear them. Don't get why people feel 'pressured' to wear them, there are plenty of nice looking and fashionable shoes that have low heels. If a man said he'd like me to wear them I'd say 'no'.

Not true name change nugget. You can keep your biscuit and have it with a cup of tea.
In sociological studies done of women and professions, they found that the higher up the woman was (think FTSE board member or CEO), the flatter her shoes.
Similarly, they found that the more degrading the profession, the higher the heels with sex workers having the highest heels most often worn.

But yes, high stilettos are probably the modern day version of the corset. Restrictive apparel to keep women in their place, I guess.

Corsets were never restrictive. They've always been about supporting the core and bust. Every woman from the upper classes to the women working in the fields wore them. The lacing was designed to be adjusted to allow for pregnancy and breastfeeding.

I read that broken ribs caused by corsets contr8buted to the high maternal death rates, so that would suggest corsets at one time were very constructive

The question I would love to see answered ( scientifically rather than anecdotally ) is what type of footwear did the successful women wear on their way up?

A societal effect would make it much easier for a successful woman o ditch the heels , because they already have the society position.

lol hell no- I'm 5'10" and I wear heels all the time, they never make me feel weaker- on the contrary I feel way more powerful with them on. I'm about 6 foot with heels!- I actually make short men feel insecure

I wear flats always. I’m 5’9” so don’t need extra inches anyway. I have never found a pair where the balls of my feet don’t hurt no matter what padding or taping of toes I carry out. I have hyper mobility and fucked ankles as I go over on them so often, I’d be a right liability in heels.

Wild - corsets may have been designed as supportive, but that wasn’t how they were worn very often because of the fashion for small waists and an hourglass figure. Didn’t women used to faint all the time? Or their rib cages were sometimes misshapen because of constant wear? At the very least, corsets definitely would have stopped women exercising. I have a few wired basques and I don’t wear them massively tight on occasions when I have worn them, but even these are not exactly designed for mobility, put it that way.

I'm very short but my feet always hurt even in low heels so I hardly ever wear them. Not sure why we do it to ourselves!

I wear heels very occasionally. I hate it when there’s an expectation to wear them though.

Years ago, I had one to wear suits to work. I had one very nice suit that I tended to wear regularly. I wore it with flats one time and got pulled up for not looking professional! Yet when I’d worn the same suit earlier in the week with heels, my boss complimented me on it!

I love wearing heels, stopped when pregnant and has taken four years to get the confidence to wear them again.
But it takes practice to walk in them and the lady in the opening post was probably wearing ill fitting ones

Iirc the waist thinning etc from corsets is because they are too tight, and in some cases, this has been done by choice. I think there was also a few people who had ribs removed to enable this.

I have two types. One that has the hook like a bra fastens. Those can horrible to wear. Ill-fitting, and uncomfy unless made to measure. The can be constricting.

I also have a more traditional type with the lace-up backs. Buy the right size and wear. Very comfortable to wear, and not at all constricting unless you've done it too tight.

I think we start doing the disadvantaging to little girls without Realising it. I used to work in a nursery. Nearly all the boys wore trainers. A lot of girls would wear bar strap shoes or even worse sandals. The boys could ride scooters and bikes without risking their feet, kick a ball, climb the climbing frame. These things were more difficult for a lot of the girls because of their shoes.

Most women wear heels out of choice not because q man told them too. If the woman wants she can, if she wants to wear flats she can.

When I see groups of women with no man in sight tottering in heels I'm not sure who is forcing them to wear them.

Heels are not very practical for running away in emergencies

Most women wear heels out of choice not because q man told them too

Agree. Actually- I wore flats for years because I was self conscious about being too tall and got comments from boyfriends who told me not to wear heels as they felt short in comparison.
Part of my liberation was to WEAR heels because now I dont give a fck whether men are intimidated by my height. If I want to wear heels I damn well will and if men feel short in comparison and insecure about that well, tough shit. I love heels and I wear them for me, not men.

Corsets 'support the core'? I prefer my own core muscles to do that